The next day, Meliodas approached the job bulletin. He stared at the board, skimming over the current jobs that were posted. The board was relatively empty compared to most days, with most of the higher paying jobs being taken. Meliodas scratched his head and sighed. He looked over towards the bar and walked over, taking a seat on one of the stools.
"Something wrong Meliodas?" Mirajane asked as she approached Meliodas. She put a glass down on the table and poured in some cold ale.
"I'm running out of booze money and all the jobs on the board are too low paying. They're not very hard but it's not something I would go out of my way for." Meliodas replied before eagerly gulping down the ale.
"You sure are devoted to collecting ale aren't you?" Mirajane smiled as Meliodas put the now empty glass back down.
"It's a hobby of mine. And it's something for me to do since I don't own a tavern anymore." Meliodas replied.
"Well if you're not doing anything today, I think Reedus is looking for people to draw." Mirajane mentioned, changing the subject as she noticed Meliodas's normally cheerful attitude disappearing as he talked about the tavern.
"Reedus?" Meliodas asked as he turned around on his seat and began looking around the guild.
"Mhm. He's the one sitting in the corner there painting on that canvas." Mirajane said as she pointed to a tall, oddly round shaped man with curly orange hair. Over his circular body was a white shirt and he donned a black wide brimmed hat reminiscent of a witch's hat.
"He's really good at drawing and his magic is based on it. He can even make his drawings come to life." Mirajane added.
"Come to life you say?" Meliodas said as he thought about a drawing of Elizabeth becoming a living, breathing Elizabeth. A cheeky smile formed on his face and he hopped off his seat.
"Thanks for the advice Mira!" Meliodas said as he walked towards Reedus at the other side of the guild hall.
Meliodas approached Reedus as he was painting a picture on a large canvas in front of him. Reedus, with his full concentration on the drawing, didn't notice Meliodas approach him as Meliodas stood next to him, looking at the picture which was a nearly completed picture of Wendy.
"Well, that's really good Reedus." Meliodas commented. Reedus turned his head and saw Meliodas standing next to him.
"Bonjour, Meliodas." Reedus greeted as he continued coloring in Wendy's hair. "I'm glad you like my drawing. I wanted to draw Wendy as she is the newest member of our guild."
"That's pretty neat. Does that mean you drew me when I joined?" Meliodas asked.
"I did." Reedus said as he placed his paintbrush down. He turned to his side and picked up a large accordion style folder on the floor next to him. After spending a few seconds browsing through the various canvases inside, he pulled one out and showed it to Meliodas.
"Wow that's really good. Looks just like me." Meliodas complimented.
"Merci." Reedus said as he put the drawing back in the folder before pulling out another one. Meliodas's eyes widened as he saw the drawing.
"Here's one I drew the next day of what I thought you would look like as an adult before I learned you're already an adult." Reedus said. Meliodas silently looked at the picture. Appearance wise, it looked very similar to Estarossa, just like his old wanted poster.
"Hmm...I'd say that's pretty accurate!" Meliodas said cheerfully, breaking the silence. Reedus smiled back and put the drawing away.
"When you get the chance, I have a request for a drawing." Meliodas said.
"I'm just about finished with Wendy's drawing so I can work on it right now." Reedus said. "What would you like me to draw?"
"There's a woman I want you to draw, but I don't have a picture of her for reference…" Meliodas said.
"Hmmm. Well if you give me a detailed enough description of her, I can draw her." Reedus responded. Meliodas put his hand up to his chin as he thought briefly. He closed his eyes and pictured Elizabeth in his head for several seconds.
"She has...the finest body in the world. The best breasts for groping and the best ass to bury my face-"
"Arrete Meliodas! That's enough!" Reedus said, somewhat flustered by Meliodas's description. "How about just tell me stuff like her hair color and her eye color."
"Oh that's easy." Meliodas responded. "She has blue eyes and long silver hair."
"What's the name of the woman you want me to draw?" Reedus asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Elizabeth." Meliodas replied.
"Okay." Reedus said as he began making a preliminary sketch on the canvas as Meliodas continued giving out details. As he was drawing, two more individuals walked up to Meliodas and Reedus.
"Yo!" Meliodas greeted as the two individuals walked up to them. Reedus looked up from sketching and saw Jet and Droy approaching.
"Bonjour." Reedus greeted.
"Hey Meliodas, getting a drawing from Reedus done I see?" Jet asked.
"Yup!" Meliodas replied.
"Reedus, we were wondering if you could draw a picture of Levy later." Droy said.
"Another one? Oui. After I'm done with Meliodas's request." Reedus responded as he continued sketching.
"So what are you drawing right now?" Jet asked as he and Droy looked at Reedus's sketch. They remained silent as Reedus began quickly coloring it in.
"Hey that looks a lot like Mira?!" Jet exclaimed. "That's pretty spot on."
"No he's not drawing Mira. He's drawing Elizabeth." Meliodas corrected, visibly annoyed by Jet's comment. "The hair needs to be shorter at the bangs. And the eyes need to be rounder." Meliodas continued. Reedus nodded in response and continued making the adjustments.
"How about this?" Reedus asked as he tweaked the drawing.
"Something's still off…" Meliodas commented as he scratched his head and pondered for a few moments.
"There you two are!" A lively familiar voice called out from behind them. Jet and Droy turned around and their eyes brightened as they saw Levy approach them with Lucy next to her.
"Levy!!!!" Jet and Droy enthusiastically shouted.
"I'm here too…" Lucy commented. Her disappointment was shaken off as she looked over at Reedus and Meliodas. She noticed Reedus was drawing something as Meliodas was talking to him.
"Hey guys, what are you two up to?" Lucy asked as she walked up to them.
"Yo!" Meliodas greeted while continuing to stare at Reedus's drawing.
"Bonjour! I am working on a painting for Monsieur Meliodas." Reedus replied. Lucy looked at the canvas and her eyes widened.
"You're drawing Mira for Meliodas?" Lucy questioned. Meliodas slumped over and sighed.
"No it's not Mira. It seems explaining how to draw someone is harder than I thought…" Meliodas said as he looked hard at the drawing and tried to think of a way to explain. Suddenly an idea popped into his head. He remembered his fight against Angel and how she had summoned two strange creatures that transformed into him and gained his memories. 'Maybe those things can transform into Elizabeth…' Meliodas thought.
"I got it!" Meliodas shouted as he reached into his pocket. Reedus stopped his drawing as he and Lucy looked over at Meliodas, curious as to what he was up to. From his pocket, Meliodas pulled out a shiny gold object. Lucy's eyes widened with shock as she realized what the item was.
"T-t-that's a golden key?!" Lucy exclaimed. "Where did you get that?!"
"I took it from an Oracion Seis woman. She also had two more keys but I grabbed those from her too. Might have left those in my other pants though..." Meliodas replied as he began shuffling through his other pockets.
"Wait does that mean you formed a contract with her spirits now?" Lucy questioned. Meliodas ignored the question as he continued searching his pockets. Eventually, Meliodas pulled out two more golden keys from his pants and held them out in front of him.
"Now which one was it…" Meliodas said to himself as he eyed the keys.
"Those are...Gemini, Scorpio, and Aries!" Lucy commented with awe written all over her face.
"Gemini! That was the one!" Meliodas said. "Here you can have these two, I only need this one." Meliodas handed over Scorpio and Aries, much to Lucy's surprise.
"Wait you're just giving them to me?!" Lucy asked, shocked at what just happened as she held the keys in her hand.
"Well if you don't want them, I guess I can sell them for booze money." Meliodas replied.
"No no! I'll take them then!" Lucy exclaimed.
Meliodas held Gemini's key in front of him and looked at it. "What did that lady say again? Open the gates? I must have forgot."
"Actually it's, "Open, gate of the twins, Gemini." Lucy corrected. Meliodas nodded and held his key out in front of him. He began to concentrate his magical power into the key to the point where it began to glow.
"Open, gate of the twins, Gemini!" Meliodas shouted. There was a brief silence as nothing happened and the key stopped glowing.
"Maybe it's broken." Meliodas said. He walked up to a nearby table and started banging the key on a nearby table.
"No, don't do that!!!" Lucy yelled as she snatched the key out of Meliodas's hand. "Are you even a Celestial Spirit Mage?"
"No, but I figured if I put enough magic into it, I could get it to come out." Meliodas shrugged. "If you can summon Gemini for me you can keep it afterwards. Otherwise, I"ll just sell it for booze money."
"Aghh...here I'll do it for you." Lucy shook her head. "By the way, Celestial spirits are not just keys you can sell whenever you want! They are living beings like us! So apologize to Gemini once I summon them!" Lucy said as she looked sternly at Meliodas.
"Alright I will." Meliodas replied. Lucy nodded and took a step back. She took Gemini's key and raised it up into the air.
"Good. Now, open, gate of the twins, Gemini!" Lucy shouted as it began to glow. Shortly after, two small, identical blue creatures with round heads and beady eyes appeared.
"Piri piri!" Gemini said as it was summoned. Gemini looked around and saw it was Lucy who summoned them and not Angel. Standing across from Lucy was Meliodas. The two blue twins immediately leaped under a nearby table upon seeing him.
"Look you scared them when you hit their key!" Lucy yelled. Meliodas didn't say anything as he crouched down on the ground and looked at the two blue creatures. He slowly extended his hands towards them before patting them both lightly on the top of their heads.
"There there." Meliodas said reassuringly. The two creatures looked at each other before flying out from underneath the table.
"We weren't afraid of him because of what happened a couple minutes ago with our key." Gemini commented. "It was the battle with Angel, piri."
"Angel? What exactly happened?" Lucy asked. Meliodas got up from the ground and looked at the two spirits, remembering that they had learned a lot about him, more than he would have liked.
"Our ability allows us to transform into anyone we touch and copy their magic, recent thoughts, and knowledge. However, it was an incomplete transformation and we could not get his magic, only his thoughts and some of his knowledge as Meliodas's magical power surpassed Angel's. But during those few moments we were transformed...piri…"
The two Geminis huddled next to each other and began shaking.
Lucy glanced at Meliodas who had a nonchalant expression on his face. 'They must have learned something about Meliodas. But what could they have learned about him that made even Celestial Spirits afraid?'
"Well Meliodas isn't a bad guy so you have nothing to be afraid of!" Lucy said reassuringly as she smiled at the two spirits.
"Lucy...you're very kind piri. It is because of that, we must warn you about Meliodas…piri." Gemini replied.
"W-warn me about what?" Lucy asked nervously as she looked at Meliodas, whose expression had not changed. Meliodas looked at the two celestial spirits and made eye contact with them.
"He's a big pervert piri piri." Gemini said. "All he ever thought about was one woman who he would do lewd things to piri piri."
"And I'm guessing that's the one that Meliodas wants drawn?" Lucy asked, shaking her head.
"Yup." Meliodas replied with a grin. "I was hoping Reedus could draw a naked version for me later."
"You sicko…" Lucy sighed.
"Well it seems I won't be able to get a drawing as accurately as I thought since Gemini can't transform into someone based on memory. Have fun with the new keys." Meliodas waved as he began to walk away.
"Hold on?! You're serious about just giving me these?!" Lucy exclaimed. Meliodas ignored her as he walked back to Reedus.
"How does it look so far?" Reedus asked as he saw Meliodas approaching again. Meliodas stood next to Reedus and looked at the drawing.
"Hmm...it's close, but not quite. Tweak this right here and that…" Meliodas answered as he pointed to different spots on the canvas.
"By the way Reedus, you think you could draw a naked-"
"Non! I don't draw those things!" Reedus interjected.